Jaiden arrived at the construction site. She had recently gotten a position working there, a job that wasn't her first choice, but right now she simply needed the money! Jaiden noticed the position open frequently on her job hunts, and the postings were always new as opposed to old ones that got filled but never deleted. It seemed like  a job that was hiring frequently, and Jaiden was able to secure a position on the construction crew. 



This was just a temporary setup while she looked for a job that was more interesting to her. Jaiden had no plans on sticking around as a construction worker, and this was a per-project position, so she'd be able to leave without much hassle when she was ready. 



"Ah, you're the new girl yeah?" an orange fox man noticed her and waved. 



"Yeah, I'm Jaiden." she nodded." Nice to meet you...?" she paused for the fox to fill out the gap. 



"Skyler." the fox smiled back. "I always love seeing the new people they bring on. So many different faces, I love that. Gets boring when there's just the same people around. It's why I never stay in the same place twice!" 



"Have you been working here a while? Must be if you've seen so many different people." 



"Oh heavens no." Skyler shook his head. "Only about a month, and I'm really just doing it until I get bored. I don't particularly have any reason to be here. It's not like money is a thing I worry about." he shrugged. "But the entertainment factor never ends." 



"Is it really that fun to be a construction worker?" Jaiden asked with a soft chuckle. 



"For most people? Probably not. For me? Absolutely." Skyler smirked. "Always such big turnaround, especially when so many people up and quit without saying a word. Or get fired, mostly because they can't say words anymore." 



"W-what do you mean by that?" Jaiden asked nervously. She knew construction work was far from the safest job, but the way Skyler spoke had a sense of eeriness to it. 



"It's not like they're hurt or anything." Skyler replied. "But because they don't have mouths to talk with! I don't even know if they can think properly, I don't think about that much, or really anyone I changed." he pointed towards a cement mixer. "That used to be this sweet badger girl, she actually fancied me but she is just so good at doing that now." he laughed, pointing to a caution side. "That used to be one of the managers, breathed down a lot of people's neck, so I just cut out the middleman by cutting out the "man" part!" he gave a deep laugh. 



"Ohhhhh, this is some kind of hazing? Like some weird joke?" Jaiden laughed along with Skyler nervously.



"Oh no, I don't joke about that." Skyler shook his head. "I meant every word! And you know what? The more I look at you, the more I think you'll do better joining them! I know you're on a temporary contract, why not make it permanent~?" he cooed with glowing eyes and a snap of his fingers. 



Before Jaiden could even properly respond to Skyler, she was suddenly frozen in place as the same blue glow that was in Skyler's eyes formed around her entire body, as her body was rapidly altered into something new entirely just like the people Skyler had talked about before. 



Jaiden felt her legs stiffen up, and looking down, she saw them starting to melt before her eyes. They were rapidly liquefying, with the clothes, shoes, and skin all converging into one type of liquid. She watched as all the colors of them turned into one, that being a light gray color. As her legs rapidly became one with that strange goop, her body was shrinking into the ground beneath her. 

As her arms started to liquefy as well, they plopped down next to the gray pile, the bright colors of her outfit all being lost in favor of the gray. Limbs and any kind of features were vanishing, the gray filling out the empty square path that she was originally standing out. 



Her ability to talk was taken away, as her lips fell right off of her face, melting away into the gray like the rest of her body was. Jaiden's facial features quickly followed, as the gray wet liquid was spreading out and filling the blank space Jaiden was on top of. Her form had turned completely gray, no traces of her old outfit, hair, or anything else. She perfectly filled out the square as a gray patch of wet cement, slowly but rapidly drying in the air. 



"There, nothing more permanent than cement~!" Skyler cooed with a laugh, leaning his head on his shovel and smiling down at the square. "Even if this building goes, you'll still be around! Cement is way harder to get rid of, it's why we use it after all! You didn't even have to go through the trouble of being put through the mixer! I could, but I was feeling nice today, I'm in a good mood!" 



He knelt down, smirking as he held an ear down next to the patch of wet cement. "What's that? You want to turn back? Then the cement won't dry! You can't be around that until it's all set! Here, I'll leave this for you for people to see." Skyler brandished a finger, running it on Jaiden's cement form as he wrote something into the cement itself. 



"There, all done." 



What Skyler had written on Jaiden read "Help, I've been turned into cement!" 



"I doubt anyone will think that's anything but a joke, but yeah, maybe you'll get lucky!" Skyler said with a laugh and shrug. "I know I won't be doing it, I don't much enjoy double dipping in the people I transform. It gets boring if I change someone more than once! Plus, can't say I remember what you look like anyway, but chin up! This is a good look for you! A part of history, people wondering about the mystery of the cement that thinks it's a person! I could see you bringing in a lot of foot traffic! I'm sure they'll keep you nice and clean for tourists ~!" 



Skyler stood up and clapped his hands. "Well, I better get back to work, this place won't build itself! And the other construction workers won't transform themselves either! Can't let just you be having all the fun! That wouldn't be fair to them! I see one of them right now who would make a great crate, big one that can fit all these tools lying around which may or may not be people I changed too. Honestly sometimes I just lose track when I'm in the zone. I'll probably forget about this too, think someone just wrote that on you, which I suppose someone did but I won't remember it being me!" 

Skyler hefted his shovel over his arm. "Anyway, enough yapping from me. Have a good life, cement~!" he winked and walked away, leaving Jaiden in her new permanent form - nothing more than cement. 



It was still wet, but rapidly trying the more her form was exposed to the air. After just a day or two, her body would become fully dry and everything on the cement a permanent fixture in it. The only person who was even around to witness Jaiden's transformation was Skyler himself, and he certainly wasn't interested in reversing it, leaving everything to think the cement was just that - cement. 



As time went by, the cement dried up, leaving Jaiden even harder to change back than before - if that would even be a possibility. It was like Skyler said, most people thought the words in the cement were just a joke, not the actual thoughts of someone who was turned into cement. It often made for soft chuckles, and Jaiden was photographed more than a few times thanks to the novelty of that part of the sidewalk. It wasn't a major attraction by any means, but enough to always get people to stop and talk about it when they came across it. 



While the piece of pavement that was Jaiden would be damaged every so often, it would be repaired and cleaned to keep it moderately pristine (as pristine as a slab of cement could be, anyway). While the message in the cement could theoretically be covered up, it caused enough foot traffic for the restaurant that was built next to it that they wanted that to stick around. 



And that was Jaiden's permanent position now. Just a piece of a cement next to a busy restaurant with a silly message on it for people to be entertained by. No one once thought the plea for help and insistence that they were someone who got turned into cement to be anything real. It was just a silly comment on an inanimate object, nothing to look into~!